2009 review of prescription charges

In its submission to the government's 2009 review of prescription charges (the Gilmore review), the ADSHG recommended that prescription charges could be phased out in a cost-neutral way by placing patients with long-term medication dependencies on three to six month repeat prescriptions, as appropriate. This could generate savings on pharmacy dispensing fees and associated costs estimated at potentially £450 million per annum.

Summary of main points

1. Prescription charges and length of repeat prescriptions for patients with long-term medication dependencies are two issues that must be reformed in tandem, because of inevitable concerns over the potential for increased medicines wastage where medication is a 'free good' and because restricting patients to just 28-days’ supply at a time unnecessarily and artificially limits the medical benefit.
2. The current main mechanism for wastage prevention, 28-day rationing, is inefficient when applied to drugs with a stable, long-term dependency. It is costing the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds in additional expenditure in pharmacy costs.
3. Our estimates suggest it would be possible to phase out prescription charges for the entire UK population on a cost-neutral basis, through a one-third reduction of the current spending on pharmacy dispensing fees and associated charges. The prescription charge brings in around £450 million pounds in revenue, which is about one-third of the £1.36 billion spent on pharmacy costs. A cost-neutral phasing out of the prescription charge could be achieved by extending the length of repeat prescriptions for patients with a stable, long-term medication dependency from the current 28 days to between three and six months, as appropriate.
   

Download the following

Letter to Professor Ian Gilmore

Background information for the Gilmore review

Supplementary information to the Gilmore review on prescription charges.